Outdoor portraits lens

Want to buy a lens or my 1.6 DSLR. It will be for outdoor portraits exclusively.

I was thinking a 70-200mm but most of the time I see guys using the 24-70 and 24-105 lens for this stuff. What focal range is typically suggested for this type of work?

If I could pick any Canon lens for outdoor portraits, I'd pick the 200/2L.
Returning from the realms of fantasy however, one day I'd hope to be able to use a 70-200/2.8.

70-200.f2.8 for me..

On 1.6 crop, I really like 60mm so the Canon 60mm macro was one of my favorites. I would also look at the Tamron 60mm f2 macro as well since it is a stop faster and will give you better separation between the background and your subject. The 85 f1.8 is another popular option or you could go with a 50 f1.4 if that is too long.

My favorite combo is 70-200 f2.8 IS MK II on full frame, but it is certainly a good option for crop as well.

FredM wrote in post #11603252
Want to buy a lens or my 1.6 DSLR. It will be for outdoor portraits exclusively.

I was thinking a 70-200mm but most of the time I see guys using the 24-70 and 24-105 lens for this stuff. What focal range is typically suggested for this type of work?

you can looks at the settings in the portrait flickr groups
http://www.flickr.com/​groups/theportraitgrou​p
http://www.flickr.com/​groups/strobist

on my 1.6 crop I prefer a 90mm prime

For outdoor portraits with a crop, I like the 100mm 2.0. The 135mm 2.0 is another outstanding choice.

i love using my 50 1.4

You can't go wrong with a 70-200mm. After that you could consider specific primes but the zoom will give you the most flexibility.

I think 135 is a great focal length for outdoor portraits. If you're willing to manual-focus then there's a ton of M42 lenses available for cheap.

70-200mm 2.8 is ii

If you're on a budget: 50mm/1.4 or 85mm/1.8 or 100mm/2.0

85mm, 135mm, or 70-200mm are great for outdoor portrait work

If you are willing to go with manual focus you have a lot of fast professional lenses to choose from at reasonable prices. I use an XSI body and mostly Nikkor and Mamiya 645 lenses. I have blown through a lot of really nice M42 and C/Y lenses and find the Nikkors and Mamiya works best for me (all of the old branded manual focus lenses work quite well and my preference is more personal rather than based on something concrete I can point to).

A Nikkor 105 2.5 and Nikkor 180 2.8 are considered two of best lenses in their focal lengths. They can be picked up in the US for under $275 for both lenses ($100 for the 105 and $170 for the 2.8).

Manual focus 135 lenses are nice as well for outside portraits. A Contax/Yashica Zeiss 135 2.8. I think this lens will cost about $200

A Mamiya 645 80 2.8 in almost like new condition is about $50.

I have used all of these and a lot more in manual focus. They are inexpensive to acquire, they hold their value and easy to resell if they do not work for you - a rather easy way to experiment with different focal lengths and speeds of lenses.

A tripod and live view will give you very sharp focus with manual focus. I take a lot hand held as well.

For me, a longer fast lens makes it easier to make a nice out of focus area. I can blur the background with the 180 2.8 easier than with a 135 2.8 all other things equal.

You can see plenty of examples of longer focal length portraits (135 and above) on places like flickr. You can also read about professionals that will grab long lenses when they have outside portrait assignments.

This was taken with a Nikkor 180 2.8 on an XSI and tripod during light snow showers.

hieu1004 wrote in post #11603723
85mm, 135mm, or 70-200mm are great for outdoor portrait work

+1, 135L is my favorite.

FredM wrote in post #11603252
Want to buy a lens or my 1.6 DSLR. It will be for outdoor portraits exclusively.

I was thinking a 70-200mm but most of the time I see guys using the 24-70 and 24-105 lens for this stuff. What focal range is typically suggested for this type of work?

If my understanding is correct, your question was about focal length range, so I will refrain from giving unwarranted opinions about which lens and stick to focal length range. I use the below focal length ranges from a 8-10ft subject distance for the kind of work you mention:

50-60mm on APS-C captures waist up from 8-10' (4.0' x2.7')
60-70mm on APS-C captures had & shoulders from 8-10' (3.4' x 2.3')
90-100mm on APS-C captures tight headshots from 8-10' (2.3' x 1.5')

Thw shooting area required will work out to 25-26' long shooting area (2.5' backdrop, 5' separation to backdrop, 2' subject, 10' camera-to-subject, 2.5' camera, 3' photographer. If you have more distance (luxurious indoor shooting or outdoors), simply multiply the above FL by the proportional factor (e.g. 20' camera to subject = 2 * FL in above paragraph).

Do not go too short or too long, else you start seeing perspective distortion. For an example, have a look at the link http://www.stepheneast​wood.com …/lensdistortion​/index.htm. Although the shots have been taken with a full frame body, but it does not matter.